U.S. fertility rate hits lowest level on record

A recent report shows that last year's U.S. fertility rate fell to the lowest rate in recorded history. (Shutterstock)

Our take: The economic recession has impacted many aspects of family life — including the choice of when and how many children to have. A recent report shows that last year's U.S. fertility rate fell to the lowest rate in recorded history. In this article from The Wall Street Journal, Conor Dougherty reports on the recent findings.

Last year the U.S. fertility rate fell to the lowest level since the government began keeping track of the data, the latest evidence that the recession and slow recovery has markedly altered plans for new children, according to this report released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The overall fertility rate for women in the U.S. — defined as the number of newborns per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 — was 63.2 last year, down from 64.1 in 2010 and the lowest rate since the government started collecting these statistics in 1920.

Ken Johnson, senior demographer at the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire, notes that similar fertility drops occurred during the Great Depression — and never recovered. "The young women never made up for the births that they didn't have," he said.